7 Things to Look for in Invoicing Software

Invoicing is critical for most small businesses—it is likely the mechanism for how you get paid for the work you do. However, it can become tedious and frustrating for many of us who work with many different clients.

Why do you want invoicing software? For any small business using invoices, the overarching goal of an invoice is to get paid what you’re owed on time. Good invoicing software helps you accomplish this task—and more.

You should aim to create standardized, easy-to-understand invoices that can be made in minutes with a few keystrokes. Although it depends on your clients, ideally you don’t have to use different invoice templates for each entity you do business with. Invoicing software helps you homogenize and accelerate your invoicing operation.   

1. Easy to Create Invoices

Probably the most critical function of any invoice software is the ability to create invoices, which you want to be able to do quickly, easily, and repeatedly. You want your invoice recipients to easily recognize how much they owe you, where they should send payment, and when you expect it—you want to give them no excuses for being late with a check. Most likely, you didn’t go into business to create invoices—solid invoicing software makes this part of the job a snap.

2. Branding Capabilities for Your Invoices

Along with making invoice creation breezy, look for invoicing software that easily allows you to add branding. Again, your big, bright logo sitting atop an invoice helps clear up any confusion on the part of the payee. Creating colorful invoices with your awesome branding also ensures you come across as highly professional and organized. Good invoice software can help you create documents in your brand voice for all of your clients. All you should have to do is switch out the type of work being invoiced and who you are sending the invoice to.

3. Ability to Create Recurring Invoices

Invoicing software eases the burden of being a small business owner by chasing down payments for you. You should be able to set up recurring invoices to your repeat clients so you don’t have to remind yourself to send something out every week or month. Even better, some options allow clients to set up automatic payments so you get your payments as smoothly as possible. If you work with clients on a long-term, repeated basis, invoicing software means you don’t have to constantly remember to send out invoices to them.   

4. Multiple Payment Methods

Unfortunately, it can seem that clients will find any reason to delay payment. We’re often told that checks have been “lost in the mail” for weeks on end. Good invoicing software combats this issue by allowing your clients to pay you in multiple ways. Some can even allow you to receive payment by credit card or bank transfer, ensuring those funds enter your account as quickly as possible. Oftentimes, you can receive your money within 72 hours of your client paying the invoice through automated clearing house (ACH) options.

5. Tie Invoices to Your Expenses So You Can Monitor Revenue

Invoices are only one element of your business equation. They represent your cash in-flows, and, in many cases, invoices might be the entirety of your revenue. On the other end of the equation are expenses like rent, wages, equipment, and office supplies. The best invoicing software, like the Lendio app, links the 2 parts of your finances so you can see how your business is earning and spending money. For the long-term, this feature will give you a granular, data-driven ability to create accurate business planning documents, not to mention it helps take the sting out of tax time.

6. Identify Unpaid Invoices

If you have a long roster of clients, keeping up with your invoices is a job in itself. Determining who owes you what and when, along with who is delinquent, can be extremely frustrating and is likely not what you signed up for when you decided to go into business. Invoicing software can quickly identify which invoices are unpaid and how long they’ve been delinquent. It also easily sends invoice reminders on a recurring basis so you can let your payees know you are paying attention.

7. Change Your Pricing and Offer Deals

Depending on your business, you might find your pricing changes with the seasons, business traffic, or other factors. However, it would be nice to determine price changes for your business without doing line-by-line math in every one of your invoices. Good invoice software allows you to easily change up your pricing in case you want to offer a discount or need to increase costs due to a surge in demand. Even better, software can allow you to easily set prices by either dollar amounts or percentages.